It’s April 4th, and that means the official launch of Sonic the Hedgehog IDW series! On this episode of the SEGA News Bits Barry will give you his thoughts on the new direction, how it stacks up against the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog series and much more. Did you pick up the new issue of Sonic the Hedgehog IDW? If not, no worries, this discussion is spoiler free! If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

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In a move that nobody saw coming, Sonic is to join the fray in Tekken 7 according to Namco Bandai’s “Nico Easter 2018” stream earlier today. Tekken is no stranger to bizarre crossover characters (Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis was added just last month), but even by those standards it’s surprising to see a character like Sonic standing toe-to-toe with Heihachi.

Since the stream was only available through NicoVideo, information is limited. From what we can gather, Sonic’s inclusion appears to be some attempt at cross-promoting Sonic Forces – right down to his home stage being Metropolis from the game. It’s expected that Namco Bandai’s western channels will release more information and assets shortly, but in the meantime we nabbed a few screencaps from the stream. Annoyingly, you need a premium NicoVideo account to re-watch the stream, so we don’t have any footage to share.

If you’re like me who wasn’t able to visit GDC this year and are hoping to find a way to watch the GDC talk on Sonic the Hedgehog. You’re in luck as GDC has begun uploading this year’s panels, along with the Sonic GDC panel, onto their website the GDC Vault. The video has been made available for free viewing on their website and may even appear on their YouTube channel. Currently the GDC Vault does not allow video embed, so you’ll have to go over to their site by clicking on the image above or one of the many convenient links like this one here.

In case you missed it, Naoto Oshima and Hirokazu Yasuhara hosted a panel talking about their perspective on the creation of the character, what made him stand out as well as the game design and art direction that brought us the Mega Drive/Genesis title. Previously we were only given a glimpse thanks to the efforts of Frank Cifaldi on Twitter. Now we are able to witness more with an edited video that presents the two speakers along with their slides for easy viewing. The Q&A session follows after the panel, plus a bonus speed drawing from both Oshima and Yasuhara.

The GDC Vault is home to plenty of talks that range from game development tactics, to important topics and postmortems of other games. Some panels will require a paid subscription for viewing. You can watch the Sonic panel or other panels from this year’s conference here.

On this SEGA News Bits, we take a look at the announcements that came out of last week’s Sonic at SXSW event – from physical releases to “don’t call it a sequel” to the return of classic Sonic to animation. Check out the video above for all the Sonic Mania reveals and after the break Sonic Racing is discussed.

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Since the 90’s, speculation as to the future of Sonic the Hedgehog has always been a lively, if sometimes wild, topic of conversation. Fortunately for us, the future looks a little bit clearer as of today. After the double punch of Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, people have been clamoring for a taste of what’s to come next, which is why all eyes turned to the “Gotta Go Fast” panel at this year’s SXSW.

Once again, Aaron Webber led the proceedings of what has become a yearly function for the crew over at SEGA. Joined by Austin Keys, Tyson Hesse, Jasmin Hernandez, and Sonic Team’s own Takashi Iizuka, the panel spent the next hour going across all aspects of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Some jokes were had, some things were teased, and some pretty swell announcements were made.

On this episode of the SEGA Talk Podcast we cover one of the most important SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive titles ever released: Sonic the Hedgehog! George and Barry discuss the game’s history, our exposure to the game and, for the first time, we are offering a special YouTube enhanced version of the podcast. We are still working out the kinks and feedback would be appreciated. If you like the show, make sure to leave us a positive five star review on iTunes, it always helps!

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

It’s hard to believe that the mobile title Sonic Dash is almost five years old. With over 100 million downloads and two sequels under its belt, the endless runner certainly shows no signs of stopping. To celebrate its anniversary, the official SEGA HARDlight Twitter account made a brief teaser video as to what they’d be doing to celebrate the occasion. Dialing up a certain spherical gaming icon, Bandai Namco tweeted a follow-up where none other than Pac-Man picked up the phone. Though they had previously tangled in the world of Super Smash Bros., the two titans have teamed up for a crossover that conveniently fits in your pocket.

Updating the app on your device of choice, players can now unlock Pac-Man for a limited time. Your vintage badniks have been replaced with the classic ghosts, and using the dash move even turns them blue! Sadly, we don’t get to see Pac-Man’s smiling face tackle Dr. Eggman, the evil genius being replaced with a giant ghost named Bash. Wearing a crown, the only guess is that maybe he’s a supercharged Inky? Though he doesn’t seem very bashful anymore if that’s the case.

Instead of being content with just one mascot hopping into another’s game, the two companies have gone that extra mile and done their own video game exchange program. Not only is Pac-Man running about Seaside Hill chompin’ on ghosts, Sonic the Hedgehog has jumped into the mobile version of Pac-Man. Running about a maze version of Green Hill Zone, the classic Motobug rolls about trying to stop Sonic from getting those rings and his animal friends. In Pac-fashion, the red badnik rolls about with pink, blue, and yellow variants, and turn that dark shade of blue if Sonic grabs an invincibility item box. Heck, one of the mazes even has the word “run” in it, so you know what’s up.

As with Sonic Dash, the Sonic maze in Pac-Man is only available for a limited time, so be sure to download both as soon as possible. Though with this new development, there’s one thing to consider…since both these games have had cross-promotions with HelloKitty, how long until we get the ultimate crossover with all three having wacky adventures and solving mysteries? You know you want it to happen.

Yesterday it was announced that Sonic the Hedgehog would in fact be seeing a new game in 2018 – the twist being that it was a board game. On this SEGA News Bits, George takes a closer look at the Kickstarter for Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers and points out the positive and negatives of the campaign and if the $100 price tag is worth it.

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